Family Finds Each Other
by mysticalflute
Summary: When Emma is sent back in time due to Zelena's spell, she realizes there are a couple of family members missing from Storybrooke.


It felt like being back on the streets, really, having to duck from people traveling along the road that she didn't want to be noticed by. Oh but it was different. So, so different. She wasn't running from cars, but rather from _carts,_ most of them drawn by horses or the occasional donkey. Normally she was the one who knew what she was doing (or she shared that distinction with Lily and Neal), but in this world she was lost without the guidance of her mother, Mulan or Aurora.

No, this time, Emma was completely alone in the Enchanted Forest, in the _past_ , if Regina's gaudy outfit had been any indication as she'd watched her pass by from a bush after taking some clothes to wear so she could blend in. The fewer people she interacted with the better, and she really just needed to find Rumplestiltskin and get back to Storybrooke. The only problem was, she had no idea where Rumplestiltskin was. Only that he lived in something called the Dark Castle. Which was the least helpful description of a castle one could possibly give

She heard a cart and ducked behind thicket of plants, watching as the small group passed by with a frown. The group – or, three of them at least – looked quite familiar to her. But she couldn't see their faces, so she couldn't see who they were.

Taking a deep breath, Emma slowly rose up to continue on her way, before she froze at the sound of barking. She loved dogs, but being in the Enchanted Forest, well, she didn't particularly care to encounter any of these dogs.

"Oh… good dog?" she asked as she held out her hand to the dog, patting it gently on the head with a smile. It seemed to be well cared for, and she wondered where the owner could be. "You're cute, but how about you go back to your owner now?" The dog took no interest in listening and instead sniffed at her hand, tail wagging eagerly.

"Wilby!" a man's voice called. "Wilby, where did you run off to now?"

The dog barked, Emma winced, and before she could get her legs to cooperate and run, she found herself face to face with her father.

God, she really was turning into Marty McFly.

"Oh – hello. I'm sorry. I hope Wilby didn't frighten you," her father said as the dog – Wilby – walked over to him and sat patiently at his feet. "He tends to wander sometimes."

Emma took in her father's appearance. Princely, regal. Like he looked most of the time minus the period clothing. But there was something else she noticed about him. He looked sad, but he was trying to hide it, she noticed. Much like her.

"Um," she started, realizing he was waiting for her to speak. "No – no it's fine. He's fine. Really well-trained. I'm just sorry to interrupt you. You guys look worried about something."

He sighed, looking around nervously. "My mother has fallen ill. We're on our way to Lake Nostos to find water to heal her."

His mother. Her grandmother. Emma had never been able to meet either of her grandmothers before.

Lake Nostos. The lake she and her mother had traveled through to get home to Storybrooke. Maybe it would work again to get her back to her own time.

"I'm actually headed that way myself. My… brother is ill and he needs help. I was hoping this water would help him," she said.

"You can come with us then," her father said . "We will travel together."

"Um. Thanks," she replied. She knew it was dangerous to go with them. She'd seen Back to the Future many times, but still, she couldn't help but yearn to get to know her grandmother. To save her grandmother.

She was the Savior, wasn't she? Back to the Future might not be her own life… right? Right.

"Charming, who is this?" her mother asked, looking at Emma with a distrusting gaze.

"This is – uh."

"Leia. My name is Leia. My brother Luke is very ill and I was hoping the water from Lake Nostos would help him." She felt bad about lying but she didn't have a choice.

"Leia?" her grandmother rasped from the cart, and it was then Emma realized the horrifying, familiar marks of Dreamshade on the woman's hand as it clutched a cloth to the bleeding wound. "What a beautiful name…"

She smiled weakly at the woman. "Thanks."

"We've stalled enough. Let's hurry and get to the lake," the man (Lancelot, Emma suddenly realized) said. She'd met the man before, when she'd been here with her mother. It felt like a lifetime ago.

"So… your brother, huh?" her mother whispered. There was something hidden in her gaze – and it was even more obvious to Emma than it had been with her father.

"Yes… but what about you? What's wrong with you?" she murmured.

She noticed her mother stiffen. "What do you mean?"

"You look upset about something."

The woman's nostrils flared slightly. This was not the woman Emma knew in Storybrooke, not held back by the meek Mary-Margaret Blanchard.

"How could you tell? Are you a witch?" There was the leader that Emma had seen briefly when the curse had been broken.

"I – no. Not really? It's… complicated."

"Complicated."

"In the town where I'm from, I'm known as the Savior. So I – I do have magic. But I couldn't figure out how to save my brother with it, which is why I'm coming to this lake. The lying thing just came naturally." She wasn't sure how she'd explain to her mother about her past. She found it difficult enough trying to explain all of this to her now. "I know we aren't friends, but I've found that sometimes talking to someone you don't know about your problems is sometimes better."

"You ever been in the middle of a war with someone out to kill you?"

Emma could only scoff as she watched Wilby dart off ahead of them. "I had to face down a wicked witch after she drained my powers using a man I was trying to revive. She wanted to go back in time and change the past, and thought I was in the way," she said.

Her mother's eyes seemed to soften at that. "Really?"

She nodded slowly.

"That's horrible. And this witch… she's taken care of?"

"Very much so." Being shattered into millions of tiny pieces certainly took care of anyone that was in the way.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," Snow said with a small nod, before biting her lip. "I was… cursed, by a very corrupt king. I'm infertile now. I don't think it's fully hit me yet."

Emma blinked, staring in shock. This was her mother. Who very obviously hadn't remained infertile, or she and the baby would never have been born. She must have been able to get some of the magical water as well.

Or… perhaps not.

"W-what happened?" her mother asked in horror as the dry, desolate lake bed came into view.

There was a horrified gasping sound from her father. "The siren. The lake must have dried up when I killed the siren to save Abigail's True Love."

Wilby whined from Ruth's side, clearly sensing something was wrong.

"No. This can't be. There has to be water left," Emma said, striding forward and gazing down at the shells and leaves that were left behind, realizing with a bit of horror what must have happened. Someone had found a cure, but only for her mother.

Well, Emma wasn't called The Savior for nothing, right? She knew she would find a way to save both her mother and her grandmother.

She had no idea how she was going to do this, but she knew she didn't want her grandmother to die such a painful death.

Wilby barked, rushing out to the where the water had once been, pawing at it anxiously.

"What is it Wilby?" Emma asked, kneeling down next to him as he began to dig. "Is there something there?" The water had eventually been able to return despite this area having been frozen for twenty-eight years. There had to be water here somewhere. She was the savior… this water was supposed to save people who needed it.

"Come on… there has to be water here somewhere," she whispered. She could hear her frantic footsteps and mutters from her father as he too looked for a few drops to cure his mother. "I have to save them." She had to save herself – literally. If she didn't, Emma would never be born. The curse would never be broken… the world would be without Henry. She couldn't stand the thought of that.

"Please let there be water here," she whispered, closing her eyes tight, thinking of the beauty of the place when the water was here, bringing comfort to those who sought its waters. The joy on Kathryn's face when Frederick was freed from the golden curse. The joy she felt when she jumped into its waters into the portal, when she was reunited with Henry. She wanted to give her father that same happiness, so that both her mother and her grandmother could be saved.

"Please!" she begged before hearing Wilby yelp and jump back from where he'd been digging.

Her eyes opened slowly and she saw a small stream of water sticking up from the ground. It wasn't the powerful geyser Emma had been thinking of, but it was a start. "HEY!" she shouted. "I FOUND SOME WATER!"

Her hand was glowing and shaking above the small bit of water but she ignored it, grabbing an empty shell and filling it with water as her parents and Lancelot rushed over with cups and shells of their own.

She noticed her mother take a large gulp as soon as her father's back was turned and rushing back to the cart, before Emma, her mother, and Lancelot followed.

"Here, mother. Leia did it… she found water for you," David said as he lifted the cup to his mother's lips. She sipped it slowly, and immediately, the color began returning to her face, the marks from the Dreamshade fading from her skin, and Emma let out a deep sigh of relief as her grandmother's eyes opened with a smile.

"That… is much better," her grandmother said as she sat up in the cart. "Thank you, Leia."

"Hey, no problem. I'm just glad to see everything worked out okay," she said. She probably looked more relieved than she should have considering she was a stranger to them, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Please, what can we do to repay you for helping us like this?" her father asked with a smile.

Emma blinked in confusion. "Oh – you don't owe me anything at all. I just wanted to do the right thing. I don't think anyone deserves to lose their parents to murder – especially to something so painful." She thought of Henry immediately.

"Yes well, you needn't worry. King George won't be a threat for much longer," her father said, his eyes flashing with anger.

"Just be careful. Your kingdom needs both of you alive in order to be able to rule," she said with a weak smile.

Ruth laughed a little. "Oh, don't worry, Leia. We will make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, right Snow?"

"Of course… but before we worry about that, Leia, why don't we help you get that water back to your brother? It's the least we can do for you helping us."

Well shit, Emma hadn't been expecting that.

Emma hesitated, biting her lip, knowing how her mother worked. "Okay, fine, you caught me. I'm not really here trying to find a cure for my brother. I'm trying to find a man that can help me get home. He's known as The Dark One."

A wave of horror rocked the small group.

"Why in the world do you want to find him?" her mother asked. "Don't you know what he does?"

"Of course I do. But he's the only one that can get me home. I'm not from here. I'm from a different realm and I don't know how to get home. He's the only one I know can help me," she said, biting her lip. "I lied because I know how people fear him in this world."

"At least allow one of us to accompany you."

She shook her head. "No. You have people you need to protect. I know Queen Regina is giving you a hell of a fight. Good luck. I know you'll win the war against her."

"Are you sure you can handle the Dark One on your own?" her father asked.

She nodded. "I'm sure. I promise. But thank you for being concerned. You'll make great rulers one day."

"I hope that day is soon," her mother said with a small smile as the four started making their way back to the woods.

She heard a giggle as soon as the others were out of her line of sight. "Well well… isn't this interesting? It's rare when heroes want to face me alone."

Emma rolled her eyes and turned to face him. God he was weird looking in this world. "Hello Rumplestiltskin. You're going to help me with something."

"Not without a price, dearie."

Emma stood straight as she gazed at the imp.

"Which one of us are her parents going to kill first?"

"Well, considering her parents are now friends with Regina, I don't think they have to choose."

The two men looked at each other with worry as they stared at the spot where Emma had disappeared. The problem was obvious, but the solution was not. How were they, two definitely _not_ magical men, supposed to go back in time and find Emma? Time-travel was supposed to be impossible, and they weren't even sure where Emma wound up.

So here they were, stuck in the barn where there had once been an Emma Swan and a giant portal to the past. Why no one had gotten rid of the marks in the dirt Zelena had forced Rumplestiltskin to dig neither of the men understood. They were both kicking themselves now for not thinking of it as soon as Zelena had been apprehended.

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to have to tell her parents."

"How exactly are we going to tell them that we lost their daughter somewhere in a time stream that shouldn't even be possible to open?"

One of the men rubbed his hand against his face, anxious. "I have no idea."

"Well, standing around isn't going to do anything."

"What exactly do you propose we do?"

"I… have no idea."

They stared at the spot where Emma had vanished, both of them knowing it was useless, that even if both of them wished with everything they had that it wouldn't bring back Emma – there was no genie here to grant that wish.

But still, neither of them stopped hoping, staring at the spot, until suddenly a portal exploded in the middle of the ground, a familiar head of blonde hair dropping heavily to the ground with a groan of pain.

"Emma!"

Both men rushed over to her, and she took each of their hands as she pulled herself up.

"The next time I go through a portal, someone remind me to wear an airbag," she huffed, pulling out of their grips and brushing her shirt down. "Is everything okay here?"

"Everything's fine," the dark-haired man replied, looking at his counterpart. "Why?"

"I went back in time. I was afraid I would have screwed something up. You know, like Marty McFly."

"Who the devil is Marty McFly?" Hook asked with a frown.

Neal sighed and shook his head. "We'll do a Back to the Future marathon soon."

"A wha – wait, Swan, where are you going?"

Emma didn't turn her head as she responded, her voice echoing off the barn. "There's something I need to do! I'll meet you both at Granny's!"

The two men looked at each other, baffled as the blonde ran off to the woods.

"Where's Emma?" her mother asked immediately as Hook and Neal walked back into the diner.

"She'll be right back. She said there was something she needed to do," Neal replied, shaking his head in confusion as Hook wandered back over to the bar.

"Well, what was it?"

"She didn't say."

Snow White frowned. "Well that's odd. Should we go loo – "

There was a distinct sound of barking, and the crowd turned to see a brown, collie-looking dog run to the door, Emma following behind him.

"Wilby!" Charming said as he practically shot out of his seat and made his way to the door. Ruth and Snow followed with wide smiles. "Emma, where did you find him?"

She smiled. "I found him in the woods. What is it you always say? Our family always find each other?"

Neal watched Charming laugh and pet the dog with a nod. "Well, to be fair, we've been busy dealing with the town being under siege or grandchildren being kidnapped, or being re-cursed without our memories since the curse broke. I'm sorry Wilby. Can you forgive me?"

The dog simply continued licking at Charming's face, running back and forth between Charming, Snow, and Ruth, and as Neal watched the family, he realized that at last, all of them were home.


End file.
